FORERUNNER: Advent Magica
by Aeos React
Summary: A UNSC destroyer ends up in a dimension where magic is real and magicalk girls and witches fight, but the crew of the ship will cause the emergence of ancient secrets that will lead to an adventure beyond anything that could be imagined, pairings expected
1. Chapter 1

I do not own HALO or Puella Magi Madoka Magica

This time no one (except for a several minor characters and a lot of extras) are dying.

FORERUNNER: Advent Magica

Chapter 1: Begin

SPARTAN Ari-676, originally one of the few SPARTAN III's who had been given the MJOLNIR Mk. II armor, and one of the shorter SPARTAN III's, being only 6 foot, 1 inch, was on the _Chronicle of Dusk, _a UNSC destroyer trying to get away from the planet Cytosis, as the Covenant Loyalists glassed the world, and the only thing actually piloting the ship was a recently made smart A.I named Pace, as the ship took off at the last moment before a crew could actually get on, actually they were dead before they got on.

On the ship was myself, five ODSTs, and two Separatist Hunters, and I gave Pace command of the ship, and she told me the Slipspace coordinates were gone, and that it would be a blind jump.

Seeing as there was no other way, and the drive came online as we entered a nearby nebula.

Not even aware of the large ring-like structure the size of a small moon with six prongs on it all pointing in one direction, and then as the drive charged up, the ring activated and soon a blue hue of energy surrounded the ship and then the prongs lit up as well, and then a slipspace portal appeared, and in that next second, we were shot straight through.

The ship disappeared, but just before that the ends of the prongs came off and affixed themselves to the ship, and then the portal device blew up.

Claiming the loyalist forces that were following us in a large slipspace explosion.

* * *

><p>Pace did everything possible to control the jump, and soon managed to line up some co-ordinates and made a bee-line through slipspace to the coordinates.<p>

Pace believed that they would come out in space near a planet and then she could use the star maps to plot a route to friendly space.

Then the exit came up ….

… and the ocean met them with a vengeance.

Pace immediately had the ship go FULL REVERSE, and soon every system, anti-gravity and otherwise was active and the ship stopped itself just above the water's surface.

"Whew, that was close," said Pace.

Then she decided to map out where they were and sent out several Clarion spy drones, and found out they were on a planet.

The planet was Earth, but at the same time it wasn't.

Just as the two Hunters came stomping into the bridge, Pace had found some very, shocking discoveries.

It was the year 2012, August 3rd, and they were off the coast of Japan, though Pace luckily remembered the ships new stealth/cloaking field and soon the ship was invisible to sensors and the naked eye.

Then as Pace was getting herself together, an unknown energy surge, actually several surges came from a nearby city known as Mitakihara, in fact if it wasn't for the enhanced sensors on the _Dusk _the surges would be invisible.

Pace then decided to get everyone up and moving.

* * *

><p>'<em>God, cryo-sleep is always a bitch, the least they can do is make the nutrients taste better,'<em> thought Ari as she came out of cryo, along with the other personnel.

"God getting woken up sucks"

"Can't even see right, man it will take a while for my vision to clear up"

"Achoo, god that thing is cold"

Ari flexed her currently stiff body, looked the armor over and then got out and then started walking out to the bridge, Pace having to tell them something.

Soon one Spartan, three ODST's and two Seperatist Hunters were on the bridge for Pace's announcement.

"So Pace," said Ari, "what is the situation."

Pace's holographic form came up, looked at the gathered group then lit up a screen showing the city of Mitakihara and then said, "you might want to sit down for this."

* * *

><p>The group was having headaches, and the Hunters, who were given universal communicators, looked visibly upset.<p>

It appeared that at first they had gone back in time, but according to Pace, the city they were looking at did not exist in the records and there were in fact several differences, such as whole cities that did not exist in records or some events that did not seem to match up, which led to one explanation.

"An Alternate Reality," said Ari, "is that even possible."

"By what we are seeing, yes, and actually there is something else," said Pace.

Pace displayed the unknown readings, shown in the EM spectrum as very faint disruption signals spread throughout the city, in fact they were so faint the only reason why Pace could even detect them was because the _Dusk_ was given an enhanced and hardened sensor package that allowed it to pick up the faint energy signals of a covenant stealth ship, which had better stealth qualities than a UNSC Prowler, of which we had one in the large hangar along several new Sabre II's and some Longswords, along with enough weapons to fight a war.

"These energy distortions worry me, they are very low and appear to be always moving, like the signals are alive in some way, and this is what's more disturbing," said Pace, and she pulled up a large list of deceased and missing people, "I decided to get into the satellites, which really wasn't difficult, and looked at images from the past few years to look at the pattern of these distortions, what I found was …. disturbing, to say the least, most of the people on this list were in areas close to or in the area of the distortion when they either died or disappeared, and I know this because I pulled up some satellite photos, enhanced them, and it showed these people were literally heading for these distortion areas."

The group was now quite worried, there were people dying due to some unknown events and it appeared that others were not even paying what was happening any mind, and then Ari said:

"We've got to get to the bottom of this," she said.

The others looked at Ari and slowly took in what she said, and then a female ODST said:

"Well it's not like we have anyone stopping us, and currently the Spartan holds the highest rank, and also something is killing people and nobody in this world, police, military or anyone is doing anything to stop it, so I guess the only ones who can do anything right now, are us," the ODST finished.

"Yeah, I say we figure this out, because it's either that or try to explain to people how three elite soldiers, a super-soldier in incredibly advanced powered armor, two aliens in very powerful and armed exoskeleton units, and a super advanced A.I connected to a high grade, super powerful military space ship with enough firepower to turn a place the size of the U.S territory into a desert of glass," snarked another ODST.

"…. I just want to not be stuck here doing absolutely nothing for the rest of my life," said a rather young, yet grey haired ODST holding a Sniper Rifle and a Rocket Launcher.

Everyone looked at each other wondering when the girl took the time to go to the armory.

"Well I guess the first place to start would be a distortion that appears to be emanating from a building," said Pace, "the importance of going there being that the building in question appears to be the cities main hospital, also I have managed to make a sort of counter-signal that should protect all of you from the effects of the energy, and have put it into all of the armors, the signal will only last about twelve minutes, twenty for the Spartan armor, so be quick in there."

"All right," said Ari, and then she turned to the others, "we don't know what we will encounter and we don't want to start a panic, so we will be using a prowler to get on top of the Hospital, and it will wait on the roof while we find the source of the distortion and destroy it, everyone got it."

"Yes ma'am."

* * *

><p>With that they got several weapons, the ODST Amy White got a BR-55 and an M319 Individual Grenade Launcher (IGL), the other, the only man left, named David Roan got an M392 Designated Marksman Rifle and an M90 shotgun, the other girl, Rena Harris, kept her weapons, and Ari got an SR Battle Rifle and a Spartan Laser.<p>

They soon left after telling the Hunters to 'hold down the fort', and soon they got onto the Prowler and headed into the city.

* * *

><p>In the Hospital …<p>

The Grief Seed in the hospital had activated and a young blue-haired girl and a familiar were within a the barrier of the witch and were walking through large amounts of desserts on the a rather frozen field, and just entering was a magical girl and a young girl, and also as another magical girl who had been put in a bind and left behind.

Non aware of the cloaked ship on the Hospitals roof, and the soldiers as they got off.

* * *

><p>Ari got off first and soon was followed by three fully armored ODST's, and using the newly added cloaking feature that was added from the Elites when they joined, they stealthily walked the halls of the hospital.<p>

Ari led the team and they soon walked to what appeared to be a physical manifestation of the distortion, which was in a broom closet.

They entered and what they saw caused their jaws to go slack.

"Okay …. Any reason why we somehow ended up in Sweetsville," said Amy as she looked at the very bizarre and very out of place and depth reality they were in.

"This place looks like something a six year old with a taste for all things gothic would draw up, this place is seriously giving off a very bad vibe," said David.

"I second that motion," said Rena.

"Ditto," said Ari.

"Okay, well split into groups of two, Amy and Rena will guard the way out from whatever may be in here," and after Ari finished, at least five strange and bizarre creatures with bloated and spotted bodies and heads that appeared to be like a bull's-eye and wearing old era Nurse hats and had floppy ears ranging from blue to red showed up, and the most disturbing part was that the creatures looked like they had come right out of a four year olds drawing and were running around.

Amy leveled her battle rifle and the high grade armor-piercing bullets of the rifle easily tore the creatures apart.

"Okay, and while you fight these, 'whatever they are's', David and myself will go to that large door and find out what the heck is causing this, let's go David," finished Ari.

"Right behind you," David said.

With that David and Ari soon headed straight for the giant door, and heard what sounded like gunfire along the way.

Then as they neared the door, they saw the one responsible for the shooting, and what a surprise it was, and also a shock.

* * *

><p>Pace was looking over the ship running diagnostics and sending repair drones to do maintenance as well as look over the new add-ons from the portal device when a call came in on the encrypted channel.<p>

"Pace ….. -is is Ari come in, I repeat come in over," said the voice of Ari from the other end, and Pace answered.

"This is Pace, did you find the distortion," Pace replied.

"Oh we sure found it, sending video your way," said Ari.

Pace got the video and started streaming, and what she saw caused her logic to go into doubt, but the video was real and live, streaming what looked like a child's gothic rendering of Ice Cream Land, along with creatures that, for all intents and purposes looked like the drawings of a child come to life.

"And here is the topper," said Ari as another video file was sent.

Pace opened the file and her logic core almost crashed, because she was now seeing a rather young (yet quite well endowed (FROM LOGIC CORE: Focus Pace)) yellow haired girl in a very tight fitting yellow outfit with a short skirt, long dark socks that went above the knees, boots, a Beret, and a hair clip that seemed to be giving of a rather strange and unknown energy, and what grabbed Pace entirely was the fact that the girl was summoning strange Flintlock-type rifles from virtually nowhere and shooting from them unknown bolts of a strange energy that was not any that was recorded anywhere, neither UNSC or Covenant, but unfortunately the energy and getup bore similarities to stuff that Pace found when looking at Japanese Comics (From Logic Core: Manga) and the only conclusion, the only actual conclusion that could be reached was that the girl was a …

"If you say that that girl is a Magical Girl or in this country it would be called Mahou Shoujo," Rena said as she saw the feed through her helmet cam, "I swear that one of us or all of us will lose it."

"Sorry Rena but right now, there is nothing I have that can say otherwise, and since this is an alternate dimension and all, I think it's safe to say that the rules of this dimension include … well …. You know," said Pace as her logic core struggled to make sense of it all.

"You mean 'Magic'," said Ari.

"'sighs' … Yes, I mean magic, okay just right now go and find out what's going on and try to come back, all I'm asking," said Pace.

"Roger," the squad chorused.

With that Pace cut the connection and then sent drones to her logic core in order to repair any type of damage that may have occurred due to the information received.

* * *

><p>In the barrier, Ari and David followed the magical girl as she headed for the large door, Ari getting the Spartan laser ready, since logic would dictate that someone or something made the messed up reality, and it dictated that they were the largest thing within the reality, and like in a video game they would be the bosses, or the toughest opponent and would be the toughest to beat.<p>

Except that was video games were you could do the as many times as necessary in order to win, in real life you only got one chance, and Ari was not about to be killed in a land of candy and ice cream.

So she and David activated their cloaking fields and stealthily followed the magic user and another pink-haired young girl as they opened the door to what would more than likely be the boss's lair.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Battle and Discovery

Ari and David followed the two girls through the door, and into a very large room with candy and ice cream forming the walls, ceiling and floors, and in the center were several tables, which were long poles with gear shaped tabletops, and then David and Ari turned to look at a chair that is near the highest table, and whatever is on the chair is emanating a very powerful disruptive field.

Ari gets to a high enough position on top of a large lollipop and got a good look at the source.

"Is that a stuffed doll or something," said David as he got behind Ari.

Ari shook her head as she continued to stare at the small toy doll like thing at the top of the chair, then several bullets punched right into the doll and sent it off the chair.

Ari, having pulled out her Spartan Laser, and had it pre-charged watched as the girl continuously blasted the doll with untold amounts of bullets and then saw her pull a very large cannon from out of nowhere and fired it at the doll, blasting the doll, but Ari and David realized the situation was not looking well.

Even after all the attacks, and getting hit by enough firepower to turn an APC into a pile of burnt and twisted metal, the doll-like thing looked basically unharmed, literally looking no worse for wear, which was simply not right in any way.

Then the girl fired into the head of the doll as it was lying on the ground, and still relatively no damage, then she fired another shot and this time a very large amount of ribbons were holding the doll in the air, and the girl was pulling out more rifles for a final shot.

Then the sensor in the helmet registered a very large distortion coming from the doll, meaning something big was coming out, and whenever that happened, it only mean bad things.

The doll began to shake and its cheeks welled up, and Ari aimed the Spartan Laser at the doll, ready to fire, the dolls mouth opened up and from it …

… came a HUGE worm like creature that looked like someone took a giant alien worm and tried but ultimately failed to make it look non-threatening by dressing it up as a clown and trying to make it look like a cartoon character, but this only made it look much more disturbing and it was ABOUT TO BITE THE GIRLS HEAD OFF WITH THOSE **HUGE** **FUCKING TEETH!**

Ari ceased analyzing and locked onto the head of the thing and then …

…. Squeezed the trigger.

* * *

><p>Mami Tomoe had just been ready to finish the witch known as Charlotte off, when its true form came out, and the shock of seeing it had caused her to lose her focus and then it opened its gaping maw and prepared to make her its next meal.<p>

Then, its eyes seemed to notice something, and then they suddenly widen and the thing recoils right back …

… just as a very powerful red beam of energy rips right through where it was and impacts the base of a table, and the explosion vaporizes the table and much of the ground in a size-able explosion that causes a powerful shockwave that blows Mami, Sayaka, Kyubey and Madoka down and causes the witch to collapse onto the ground, but it recovered and then turned to face its new adversary.

Mami, Sayaka, Madoka, and Kyubey looked to see who fired the beam, and saw on top of a lollipop, balancing a smoking weapon which looked to be a beam cannon, and saw the figure holding it.

It was a tall person in black armor that covered the whole body, and the head was covered with a helmet that had a gold visor on it, and the figure looked like a soldier of the distant future from a sci-fi show or game, and next to the figure was another soldier holding some type of futuristic gun that looked like a rifle, and wore full body armor as well, though it didn't look anywhere as good as the other persons armor and the person also wore a helmet that covered the face, except the visor was larger and was also silver colored.

Then the witch lunged at the pair, and Mami and the others could only watch as the fight happened.

* * *

><p>Ari and David immediately got out of the creatures way, Ari going left, David going right and the worm devoured the lollipop they had just been on, and then David fired his rifle, the armor-piercing rounds slammed into the creature, penetrating the skin and causing it to flinch at the impacts, but that just made it more mad and it charged at David, but then it doubled back just as another energy beam shot past, almost leaving a car sized hole in it and the beam hit a part of the wall and the explosion, knocked a good part of the wall down, and several oversized gumballs that were on the wall fell around both the two and the creature, the creature getting hit by two of the gumballs and being left dazed from the impact while David and Ari successfully evaded the large spheres.<p>

Then the creature shook its head and was soon looking at them with a large frown and charged at the two, its mouth wide open, but then Ari pulled out her Fragmentation grenades and threw them into the creatures mouth, and apparently the grenades did not seem to go well with it as it opened its mouth and the grenades were at the end of its tongue and it looked at the weapons, until the grenades went off and blew its tongue off and leaving scars in its face, and it now had a really pissed off look, but still enough of a mind left to dodge another beam as it almost blew its brains out, and it barely missed the doll body before it finally hit the table the creature had originally been on, and blasted straight through and hit the ceiling, blasting the candy at the top and causing large bars of chocolate, ice cream, and what looked like a candy cane to fall to the group below, and a the two soldiers, the witch and the group of girls were moving out of the way of the ballistic sweets as they crashed into the ground, though a chocolate bar hit the creatures head and sent it into the ground, and Ari realized that there may be no other chance to get a good shot and as she avoided the candy cane, she propped the laser up and charged the shot, and the she fired the weapon.

The beam cut through the chocolate like it was wet tissue and blasted into the creature, and the explosion was most satisfying as the monster was consumed in the blast, a large amount of smoke and fire enveloping the area where the thing had been.

* * *

><p>"Well, that was quite a fight," said David, "hang back; I'll go check if the damn thing is dead."<p>

"Okay, I'll go talk to those girls and find out what the hell is going on," said Ari and she turned to walk to the trio standing near a giant piece of broken peppermint.

The yellow-haired girl had a rifle out but it was pointed down; another blue-haired girl had what looked some sort of very strange bat and the final girl who had pink hair was holding what looked like a strange type of feline.

'_Either that thing is some sort of mutant cat, or it's an alien, and my gut is telling me the latter,'_ Ari then walked to the pair and the yellow-haired girl had a look of fear and defiance in her eyes, which must have come after seeing the fight against the creature.

Ari set the language system to its Japanese mode, and she spoke, "Relax, I am not here to harm you, I only came here to find a strange energy disturbance and ended up in this messed up place."

The yellow haired girl was silent at first, but then seemed to gather herself up and then spoke, "Who are you, and why are you here."

Ari expected that question, "My answer will be a bit unbelievable but since there is no one who I can get in trouble with or charge me with treason here I guess I'll say, as long as you tell me what's happening here."

"First off, the organization I am from is one that exists from where I was from, and is known as the UNSC, or the United Nations Space Command, the current governing body of the Earth and all of her colonies, and as for myself, I am Spartan Ari-676 of the UNSC, defender of humanity and its allies," Ari finished.

Looks of shock were on the faces of the girls, as well as disbelief, then the blue haired girl said, "so you guys are from the future or something like that," the girl said.

"Yes and no, we are from the future in your sense, but we are from an alternate reality, and thus from a different timeline, not this ones," Ari finished, "now I answered your question, now answer mine."

Mami spoke, "well as you can see, I am a magical girl, or a Puella Magi, and in exchange for a miracle we, and yes there are other puella magi, have to fight witches, which are monsters like the one you fought, and –"

Then her eyes began to go wide and she looked around, as if something horrible was going to happen.

"Mami, what's wrong," said the pink haired girl.

"Madoka, Sayaka, remember what I said about when a witch is defeated, that their barrier disappears," she said and now much more scared, "the barrier is still, here, which means that the witch is not dead, its still alive!"

The words to a while to sink in, but it was a very short while and Ari then said:

"Oh FUCK, David, get the hell away from that-"

"AAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!"

David's scream ripped through the comm. and then the smoke was blown completely away, and the group saw the ODST, his right leg ripped off, his other leg breathing horribly, his rifle hanging in two pieces from his left hand, his right arm however was wedged between some teeth.

The razor-sharp teeth of a now pissed off witch, which had somehow regenerated and had a look of murder in its eyes.

Then, as the others watched, the girls with a look of horror in their eyes, Sayaka's and Madoka's fear greater than Mami's, and Ari having put the Spartan Laser into a charger she brought along, was getting the now fully charged laser out, the creature fully opened its mouth and then fully swallowed David, but not before he primed the four grenades he was carrying.

As it swallowed, the grenades went off and an explosion blew a large hole in the witch appearing to kill it, but then its mouth opened and another worm form came out, and it was just as mad as the last, and then, it single-mindedly attacked Ari, but again avoided another beam from the Spartan laser, and the explosion hit the door.

* * *

><p>Homaru Akemi had gotten out of the bind, and was now outside the door, having used time manipulation and a desert eagle to kill the familiars outside and was about to enter when she thought she heard something, and thought that the battle inside had gone sou-<p>

KABOOM

The whole door blew open and Homaru was sent flying into a sundae, and was stuck in it, and then a large candy cane was on her arm which had her shield/time manipulation device, and it would take her a while to get loose, but saw the armored figure that was fighting the witch, and also the others, but she mostly focused on a specific someone.

A certain pink-haired someone.

* * *

><p>Ari dodged every which way, and fired her rifle at the witch, which was behind her and trying to chew her head off for what she did, and then several magic bullets fired from Mami impact the witch, but the witch completely ignores the attacks, more focused on getting rid of the Spartan and the beam cannon.<p>

Then the witch decides enough is enough as a swarm of bullet shoots its eyes and leaves it blind, causing it to get a new body to compensate, and it then used its long tongue, wrapping it around Ari's right leg and lifting her up and then prepared to swallow her.

That is until another blast from the Spartan Laser ripped by its head and left many burns, the beam also traveled out the open doorway hitting a large hill of ice cream and candy, blowing up a large portion of the hill and also causing a candy cane to be blown away and releasing a formerly trapped magical girl.

The witch tossed Ari into the air as it recoiled from the shot, slamming her into the ceiling and causing large portions of the roof to collapse.

Ari was soon falling, realizing that even with the Spartan Lasers power, it was not enough with a single shot to kill the witch, so Ari decided to end it in one big attack.

She had known of the limiter, a device that had been added into the Spartan Laser when it was built due to its power, and that releasing it would allow the one firing to use up all the shots in one powerful and ultra-lethal attack, but as a trade-off the laser would be rendered completely useless and be incapable of functioning or being recharged ever again, and that was only a 50 percent chance, the other half being that the weapon would explode and kill its operator and anyone nearby.

Ari had no more time for thinking and then thought, _"SCREW IT."_

She accessed the laser and deactivated the limiter, and then held the charging system down, and waited for the large piece of cake to move enough for a clear shot.

* * *

><p>Mami, Madoka and Sayaka dodged the falling pieces of dessert as it fell and sat the witch as it lunged up, its mouth fully open ready to finish the black armored annoyance off once and for all.<p>

They could only watch, Mami would not be able to use her rifles fast enough, and they saw as the cake the Spartan was behind was getting closer and closer to the witch.

Then, a red light began to fill the room, and a loud wine began to get louder and louder.

Then the cake moved away ….

…. revealing Ari holding the laser cannon, which was glowing like the eye of a powerful demon, and glowing more and more, the sheer power growing stronger and they all could feel it.

The witch, was now wide eyed in what seemed to be shock as the light grew bigger, and then a mere second later….

…. Ari squeezed the trigger.

The beam was huge (the size of a divine buster), and the witch had barely even micro-seconds to react as the beam tore straight through where it once was, burning its side and causing most of its body to burned, then the beam hit the ground ….

… and continued straight on through.

The beam hit the edge of the barrier but then in a massive shudder that caused the space to warp a bit, a resounding crack echoed through the barrier and the beam plowed into reality, the barrier failing in some spots and portions of reality were becoming visible, and the beam plowed through, the dirt, concrete and more as it traveled deeper into the ground, turning any matter in its way into dust and glass.

Then the beam hit something, something very tough, and when it couldn't go through, the beam detonated.

A massive shockwave of heat, concussive forces and more tore up from the hole, heading straight up the way the beam came down, and then it reached the exit, and the explosion blew out, sending Mami, Madoka, Sayaka and the recently arrived Homaru flying back a very good distance, and they were pounded by large pieces of candy, concrete and more and were left with many bruises, the witch was hit by a large blast from the hole and was burned by the heat and pounded by the concussive blast from the explosion, and hit the ground hard.

Ari however managed to grab a bubble shield and activated it in time, keeping herself safe from the blast, but then the air that the blast depleted was being quickly replaced by new air, and air rushed into the hole, and Ari was sucked down with it into the hole.

The others soon got up and made it to the hole, and then looked down to see only the sheer deep dark, then they also noticed the shadow that was above them, and saw the face of a thoroughly pissed off witch, that immediately leaped over them and dove straight into the hole, right after Ari.

They only stood and watched as the witch fell into the hole.

Then after some silence, Sayaka said:

"Now what"

* * *

><p>Outside the door, Rena and Amy had pretty much shot any familiar that tried to get near the opening, killing them, but after hearing the massive explosion they decided to go find out what had happened.<p>

Not noticing the barrier itself was starting to shrink.

* * *

><p>"HOW DEEP DID I MAKE THIS FREAKING HOLE?"<p>

Ari fell like a rock, looking to see the walls of the hole pass by her at high speed, seeing layers of cement rock and dirt go by, and then saw the bottom ….

…. Which for some strange reason looked like it was metal, a very advanced type of metal to be exact.

"Oh this is going to hurt," Ari thought, and immediately got in crash position.

She slammed into the metal, hard, and her Spartan strength and the armor protected her, but she knew that she would be sore for a while.

Then she noticed as the witch was right behind her, falling at an incredible rate straight at Ari, its mouth wide open, its teeth bared.

Ari fell backward, bits of her life flashing before her eyes, and considered it a life lived quite well (it was not), not noticing her hand was on a panel, and that the panel glowed a bit and pulsed.

Then the ground beneath Ari opened up, as an advanced doorway came online and opened in a second, allowing Ari to fall in ….

…. and then closed, allowing the witch to (quite comically), slam into the virtually impenetrable metal, giving the witch what would amount to a concussion, and leaving it to pretty much sway around from the impact before it fell backward into the wall and was left with a rather bad head trauma before it finally shook it off and with a scowl looked at where Ari went down trying to figure out a way in.

* * *

><p>Ari realized quickly that she was not dead, and that she was also in a rather dark place.<p>

Ari slowly got up and began to walk around, activating her suits built in illuminators, and she found herself in long hallway, a very large hallway.

She kept walking, finding that the hallway went down, and then saw that the walls had a soft light, illuminating glyphs that looked very alien to Ari, and also ones that she was sure she had seen before somewhere.

She kept walking down, holding her rifle after abandoning the now destroyed Spartan Laser, and kept going down the dark halls.

She went through several doors that slid open when she came close, the pulsing energy looking an almost clear white color, and she passed several large chambers, what looked a very advanced medical clinic, and a room that had appeared to have energy couplings, with the energy flowing from the roof into the floor, though the beams were very small, showing that the place was running on minimal power.

Then she came to the largest and darkest of all rooms.

She walked forward, going around what appeared to be large structures of some type, though it was too dark to tell what they were, and after five minutes, found a large control room in the center of the room, and then found an elevator, and went up.

She was soon at the top floor where the elevator ended, and looked around.

She saw a glowing blue sphere on a panel, and inscribed into it were many symbols, all of an alien alphabet, and it was silently pulsing, waiting, waiting for it to be activated.

"Well, I came all this way," said Ari as she walked to the panel.

* * *

><p>Back in the hole …<p>

The witch was pounding at the metal doorway, but not even leaving a dent, much less a scratch in the armor, and then tried to think of anything, but due to its nature it really wasn't much of anything in the way of thinking.

It then found that the arm of its previous victim was hanging out, virtually torn up at the upper arm but the lower arm and hand were somehow still intact.

It then maneuvered a bit to eat the arm whole, and then the arm touched the panel, and the panel glowed slightly before the hand was pulled off, leaving it unable to fulfill its scan.

The witch saw this, however.

It decided to put the hand on the panel again, and again it glowed before the witch took the hand off before the scan could finish.

Then it put the hand on for longer and the scan did complete, and the door opened for the witch.

The witch, named Charlotte smiled big and dove into the doorway after eating the arm, entering the facility as well, and a barrier was slowly starting to take form, though form some strange reason could not take form.

* * *

><p>"Waaaagh," yelled Madoka as she clung to Mami, who held her bridal style, Mami having to increase her strength by a sizeable amount since Sayaka was also on her back, holding on for dear life.<p>

"There it is," said Mami as she saw the witch enter the doorway, and then saw as it closed up on them, and Mami used her ribbon to slow them down and prevent them from crashing into strange metal structure.

"Wow, this looks very Sci-fi," said Sayaka as she looked at the metal structure, sharp angled, glowing a dull silver, and what appeared to be energy running through it.

"So how do we get in," said Madoka.

"You don't," said a rather harsh voice from above.

The trio looked to see Homaru Akemi land in their midst.

"I told you that I would handle this witch, and that I could defeat it, but here you all are going after it into who knows where, now Madoka, I told this has nothing to do with you know come on," said Homaru.

"Bu-but I don't want to go, I can't leave Sayaka and Mami alone with that witch," said Madoka.

"Homaru, you can't make Madoka leave, she came of her own will, so it's her right to be here," said Mami.

"Yeah, and besides, look at where were standing, this could be the greatest discovery ever her, this thing is obviously not man-made, and if it was, why bury this deep in the gr-wha,wo-woa-waagh, ooph," Sayaka had tripped on the metal and landed face first.

Her hand settling on the access panel.

Before anyone could say anything, the doorway opened again, while they were all on top of it, and the only thing they said as that happened was:

"Eh"

Then they fell right in, the door closing moments afterward.

* * *

><p>Ari, soon reached the panel, and first looked around a bit, noticing the room must be a control room.<p>

She then looked at the panel, stood for a second …

… and reached for it.

* * *

><p>The witch was going through the halls, going past the rooms, ready to make the Spartan hurt, then it noticed that its barrier was not coming up and it was still in the same hallway.<p>

It then put more of its grief energy into the barrier, and soon the barrier was taking shape.

* * *

><p>"Owww, that hurt," said Sayaka as she rubbed her face, happy nothing was broken and that she did not get a concussion.<p>

She got up as Mami, Madoka and Homaru were straightening themselves out, and looked around, seeing the dull light and the strange alien symbols on the walls, glowing from the energy running in the facility.

Then they saw the distortions of a forming barrier.

"You said what about this place," said Homaru to Sayaka.

Sayaka laughed a bit nervously and turned away, though she started sweating a bit.

Mami prepared herself with her muskets, and Homaru was ready to use her arsenal of weapons the second a familiar shows up.

* * *

><p>Ari walked up to the panel ….<p>

…. And activated it.

A surge of power instantly rushed through the facility, and the once dark room became illuminated by the light, which was so bright that Ari had to close her eyes at it came up.

* * *

><p>The witch was about to make its barrier when a surge of energy came from nowhere …<p>

… and caused its barrier to completely fall apart, and the whole facility came to life in a flash that left the witch blinded.

* * *

><p>The group saw as the barrier disappeared, and then in the next instant a flash of light hit them, and soon they were left blinded a bit.<p>

Slowly there eyesight came back, and what they now saw …

… left them in awe.

* * *

><p>"<em>I can't believe it, now I remember where I saw this stuff," <em>said Ari as she looked out.

The room wasn't large, it was massive.

Large amounts of very large rectangular structure, looking like incredibly advanced containers of countless sizes were everywhere, and the room was long enough to fit a large town, and tall enough to fit small skyscrapers.

But what got her were the symbols she now saw clearly.

She remembered them, remembered the digs, remembered the excavations she guarded, and realized exactly who it was who made the facility.

Then she saw something come down, a sphere-like drone, glowing with a soft light, using advanced anti-gravity systems, and had a single glowing blue (almost white) eye, and it spoke, in a monotone male voice:

"GREETINGS, RECLAIMER"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Facility 12, Transient Storage

"WHOA, THIS PLACE IS AMAZING," Sayaka said, awed at the now fully lit hallway, seeing glowing lights everywhere, the archaic symbols, and also got to see several platforms, - literally suspended in mid-air, with see through pathways leading up to the platforms, suspended by what appeared to be anti-grav supports.

"I must agree, this place is something," said Mami, a bit awed at the sight.

"Look, look what I found," Madoka said as she stood next to a glowing panel on the ground, energy coming from it, and she went in …

… and disappeared.

Everyone was now startled and looking around, Homaru looking more desperately, starting to look worried, when, "hey, up here," came a voice.

They looked up to the highest platform and saw Madoka on it, leaning over the edge, and then saw her go back in, and then a slight flash came from the platform, and then the strange panel also flashed and in that instant Madoka appeared, completely unharmed.

"Wow, a teleporter," said Sayaka amazed, Homaru however gained herself back up and said, "weren't we here for something."

At first they did not get what she meant, and then a rather familiar and very inhuman roar came from the halls.

"Oh, right."

* * *

><p>Charlotte was incapable of forming a barrier, she felt the energy holding her together slowly blur, she didn't know what was happening.<p>

But its thought quickly turned to what it believed was the cause, the person who tore it up so badly.

Charlotte was going to make them hurt, and bad.

It didn't even see know that every sensor had registered it as a threat, and in a short order, the defenses, came online.

* * *

><p>"This, this place, it's a Forerunner installation," said Ari.<p>

"YES IT IS RECLAIMER, OH, AND I AM 569-TRANSIENT VIGILANCE, OVERSEER OF THIS FACILITY RECLAIMER."

"Okay, so first, why is there a Forerunner facility here," Ari asked Transient.

"IF YOU WISH FOR A SIMPLIFIED ANSWER THIS FACILITY WAS BUILT AS A SORT OF STORAGE AREA OVER 20,000 YEARS AGO, RECLAIMER, AS TO WHY, MY MASTERS SIMPLY PREFFERED IT TO HAPPEN."

"No, I mean yeah they placed it here, the Forerunners I mean, but you said they built it 10,000 years ago, even though the oldest of what they built where I came from is 100,000 plus years old," Ari said to the monitor.

"YOU ARE CORRECT RECLAIMER, THE FORERUNNERS, MY MASTERS AND MAKERS HAD ARRIVED IN THIS DIMENSIONAL PLANE, THOUGH DUE TO LIMITS ON MY KNOWLEDGE PROCESSORS, AS WELL AS THE DELETION OF CERTAIN INFORMATION, I CANNOT SAY WHERE THEY ARE NOW, THEIR CURRENT GOALS, OR REALLY MUCH OF ANYTHING RECLAIMER."

"Dang and I thought this would be easy," Ari said under her breath.

"WHAT MY MASTERS TOLD ME TO DO WAS TO BOTH OVERSEE THIS FACILITY, AND IF THE RECLAIMERS EVER LOCATED THE FACILITY, TO GIVE THEM AN ITEM OF IMPORTANCE."

"What item," Ari said, now interested.

"AN INFORMATION INDEX, SIMILAR TO A REGULAR INDEX, BUT IS ENCRYPTED AND CAN ONLY BE ACCESSED BY DECRYPTING THE DATA, WHICH CAN EITHER BE DONE THROUGH THE USAGE OF A HIGH LEVEL & DECRYPTION PROGRAM, OR A HIGH GRADE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE."

"I have an A.I that can do the job, so where is the Index," said Ari.

"IT IS LOCATED ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FACILITY RECLAIMER IN THE DISTRIBUTION COORDINATION STATION AS WELL AS A SCIENCE FACILITY TO STUDY ORGANISMS OF DIFFERENT VARIETIES AS WELL AS CONTAINERS MEASURING FROM LEVEL 5 TO LEVEL 12 TO CONTAIN ANY LIFEFORMS OR MATERIALS AND SEND THEM TO OTHER FACILITIES, HOWEVER THE TRANSIENT PORTAL SYSTEM IS NO LONGER GETTING A SIGNAL FROM THE OUT OF SYSTYEM FACILITIES AND THUS THIS FACILITY IS NOW STAND ALONE."

"Okay then, so how do I get to the Index," Ari asked the Monitor.

"TAKE THE LIFT TO THE TOP, A TRAM WILL FERRY YOU TO THE OTHER SIDE."

"Okay, thanks Transient," said Ari, and she headed for the lift.

She got onto to the lift and traveled all the way to the top, seeing the incredibly large facility from a high place, then the lift stopped and she found a rather large room, and then she saw the large tram, with the distinct triangle features found in all Forerunner technology, and was suspended from a line of energy by struts attached to rings that looped around the energy beam.

Ari got on and the lift was soon going.

Ari gazed over the facility, seeing uncountable numbers of crates and containers of advanced design, some pulsing with energy, some the size of a bus, some as small as small desk, but Ari saw one blade, one huge container that seemed to dominate the whole facility, and appeared to be the size of a city bus that was made to point straight up.

Then …

BOOM

BAM

KER-BLAM!

The whole facility started to shake and shudder, explosions suddenly erupted from a side wall, and a large gout of flame came from an energy core before it exploded outward, sending out a shockwave that blew away many of the containers.

It was the witch, and it looked like hell.

It was bleeding out a strange black energy that was quickly being diffused in the air, and it had lots of burn and blast marks on its body, Ari wondering what had happened as they appeared to be scars of battle, although they could have been from the witch barging through the wall.

Then she saw the robotic machines that flew in, firing beams of bright orange energy.

Forerunner Sentinels, robotic guardians used to defend all Forerunner installations from attack by hostile forces are firing their sentinel beams at the witch, blasting it from every angle.

But the witch is not about to give up, in fact it only attacks harder, smashing more of the containers and sending several containers flying at the sentinels, smashing several of the drones, but more quickly come into play.

The witch thrashed around among the cargo containers, lashing out and smashing the Sentinels, trying to get rid of the numerous attackers.

Then it looked up, and saw Ari in the tram.

The witch then coiled its whole body, looking straight at the tram, then a beam from a sentinel hit its head, and it instead shot itself up, 5 meters ahead of the tram.

When the witch hit the beam, it burned the witch in an awful way, but the beam then fizzled out and the witch then opened its enormous mouth to swallow the rather large tram.

Not knowing that by accident that when the beam went out, it caused a distortion in the trams accelerator, causing it to go five times its regular slow speed.

The tram sped off like a missile, and it slammed right into Charlotte (the name of the witch, though Ari does not know that yet) and this broke many of Charlottes teeth and sent both Charlotte and the tram straight into the ground.

Charlotte smashed her head right onto the giant container that was larger than the rest causing it to fall over.

Ari herself has fallen out of the tram, near a large container; she gets up and finds her rifle had been smashed to pieces when a large piece of metal fell on it, now she has no weap-, hold that thought.

She finds two long, rifle looking devices that had fallen out of a container, both with a sleek yet durable design, and look loosely like Covenant Carbines.

Ari picks one up, finds what looks like a trigger and squeezes.

The center of the weapon splits open a bit, giving it a two pronged design, both prongs separate by a mere two inches, and then a ball of energy forms at the tip of the prongs, energy pumping into it.

Ari aims at the witch, who was starting to get back up, and releases the trigger.

The ball launches out, arc's of energy, at the witch, hitting its side, and exploding like a plasma grenade, the explosion knocking the witch onto the giant container, causing it to open, revealing …

… a FREAKING HUGE SWORD.

The sword was angular and had a silver shape, patterns similar to forerunner structures, a hilt that was made of a lighter silver metal, the grip looked like it was made to be held by a statue, as it was bare except for a few place to grip the blade, and had a large Forerunner Glyph in it.

The witch saw the blade, got a wicked grin on its badly scarred face, and gripped the handle of the giant sword in its teeth, and it turned to Ari, sword in its teeth, lifted its head and the blade, and swung down.

Ari moved just as the witch slashed the ground, the impacting the ground, leaving a very deep crater and deeper indentation in the ground.

Now the fight was getting serious.

* * *

><p>Mami, Homaru, Sayaka and Madoka had finally reached the end of the long hallway, watching many robotic machines go by, all of them with a single minded purpose, and went through a large gaping hole in the wall …<p>

… barely avoiding a large container that smashed into the ground mere inches from where they were, spilling several large amounts of components.

They saw the fight happening.

The SPARTAN called Ari was in pitched combat with Charlotte, who was now starting to blur a bit, as though she was disappearing, showing extensive injuries and between her teeth was a very large and ornate sword.

Charlotte swung the giant blade at Ari again, but Ari immediately dodged out of the way and brought up two strange devices, both of which fired of two spheres of energy, both impacting Charlotte and exploding in a large blast, knocking Charlotte down, and causing the witch further damage.

Then as Charlotte was stunned, Ari immediately ran for what looked like a large structure at the other end of the container filled room, while Charlotte got back up and continued pursuing.

Only to be hit by beams of orange fired from the robotic drones, all firing continuous streams of energy into the witch, which looked like it was warping and shuddering in pure pain from the attacks.

But then Charlotte shot up and slashed with the blade in its mouth, and the blade sliced through several drones and then continued to pursue the Spartan.

* * *

><p>Ari finally reached the structure, entering the doorway as it closed, but was quickly pounded to down by the enraged witch, the sword still in its mouth.<p>

Ari finally came to a very large room, and dodged another swipe from the sword, but then the witch twisted violently and the sword came around again and slammed Ari into a large device at the back of the room.

Now the witch had Ari where it wanted her, and was ready to swallow her whole and grind her to nothing in its stomach.

That is until a large cargo arm comes down and grabs Charlotte in a stasis field.

"I AM AFRAID I CANNOT ALLOW HARM TO COME TO THE RECLAIMER, CREATURE, HOWEVER IT APPEARS THAT YOU FIT WHAT MASTERS TALKED ABOUT ALL THOSE CENTURIES AGO, SO REJOICE FOR IF THE PROCESS SUCCEEDS YOU WILL GAIN BACK WHAT YOU HAVE LOST, AND MORE"

Then Ari and the recently arrived group of magical girls watch as the cargo arm takes the struggling Charlotte to a large open area, and then several beams of energy come together and trap the witch in a giant sphere of clear energy.

Then as Charlotte struggles to break out, the sphere starts to shrink, and soon Charlotte is being slowly crushed by the sphere, and once it realizes that it can't get out, and its form is causing it pain, it retreats back into its doll body, and soon the sphere shrinks to the size of a large tire (tractor tire sized), then the bubble is filled with a glowing white energy, one that makes the Puella Magi in the room feel a sense of pure calm and peace, and it completely fills the sphere.

Then large amounts of components are brought in, and it all forms around the sphere in large amounts, and it forms a large box, with lights running all around it, showing a continuous flow of energy as power cells filled with the energy are also put into the box.

Then the box shrinks, its size soon becoming that of a small house, then to the size of a truck, and then the box finally stops shrinking when it is the size of compact car, and it is floating using anti-gravitation systems.

Then it floated in front of Ari.

"What happened to it," said Madoka.

"WHAT NEEDED TO BE DONE," came the voice of the recently arrived Transient.

"IT WILL REMAIN SEALED IN THE MATERIUM SYSTEM, BEING SCANNED, ANALYZED, AND WORKED ON, IN ORDER TO FULFILL WHAT MY MAKERS DESIRE, IF THAT DOES NOT HAPPEN, THE CONTAINER WILL DESTROY ITSELF, KILLING THE CREATURE, AND LEAVING WHAT MY MAKERS TRIED TO ACCOMPLISH, A FAILURE, AS THE CHANCE OF THE PROCESS SUCCEEDING, WILL BE BASED ON THE CREATURE ITSELF, ALL AND ALL IT IS, AS YOU RECLAIMERS PUT IT 'A COIN FLIP'."

"ALSO, YOU HAVE COME FOR THE INDEX YES"

Ari nodded yes, while others only looked confused.

"FOLLOW ME"

Ari and the others soon followed behind, and soon walked the hallway to a large room, and there, floating in the middle of a large ring, was the INDEX.

Ari approached the INDEX, and it was soon sent to Ari by a Sentinel drone that guarded the room.

Ari soon grasped the INDEX and put it in a large pocket in her suit for safe keeping (thank god for compartmentalization).

"Excuse me," said a black haired girl in the group to Transient.

"WHAT IS IT RECLAIMER"

"This place, it has many weapons and those drones correct," said the girl.

"THAT IS CORRECT, RECLAIMER, MANY OF THE CONTAINERS CONTAIN MULTIPLE TYPES OF WEAPONS, LIGHT AND HEAVY, THOUGH THE SENTINELS IN THIS FACILITY COMPRISE OF A SINGLE TYPE, BEING THE STANDARD MODEL, THOUGH THERE SHOULD BE A FEW SHIELD EQUIPPED UNITES IN STORAGE."

"Could you show me," said the girl to the Monitor.

"A SENTINEL WILL GUIDE YOU, FOLLOW IT IF YOU PLEASE."

Ari, Sayaka, Mami and Madoka watched as the girl, whom they knew was named Homaru Akemi followed the Sentinel out, wondering what Homaru is planning on doing when she actually finds the weapons and drones.

"AS FOR YOU, ARMORED RECLAIMER, THE CONTAINER CARRYING THE CREATURE IS AS OF NOW, ALONG WITH THE INDEX, YOU'RE POSESSION, KEEP IT WITH YOU."

"You are asking me to keep the box, currently carrying the thing that tried to make me its meal, and now I have to take it with me," Ari posed the question to the Monitor.

"YES"

Ari just stared at the monitor, for a long while, and the three girls who were there just looked at the two, their eyes shifting from the Spartan to the Monitor, then Ari just sighed in defeat.

"I doubt I can win in a argument with you," Ari grumbled, and then said, "fine, I'll take the damn box, but how can I get it out."

As if in answer, a device activated, and a blue rimmed portal opened up, showing the top of a tall building, and then four Sentinels flew to the box, used energy tethers to latch onto it, and flew through the portal and onto the roof with it.

Ari looked at the portal for a bit, and then said, "okay, that works."

"I am done," said Homaru as she returned, causing everyone to jump in surprise and shock.

"You weren't gone even ten minutes, and you're done," said an exasperated Sayaka.

"SHE APPEARS TO HAVE A DIMENSIONAL POCKET WITHIN HER TEMPORAL MANIPULATION DEVICE, WHERE SHE CAN STORE COUNTLESS TYPES OF WEAPONS AND DEVICES, AS WELL AS SUMMONING THEM WHEN NEEDED, SIMILAR IN NATURE TO OUR SHIELD WORLDS, AS WELL AS ANOTHER ITEM, THOUGH INFORMATION ON THAT ITEM IS UNAVAILBLE TO ME, SO I CAN NOT SAY."

"I think we will just leave," said Ari.

"MY MASTERS ALSO TOLD ME THAT I AM TO JOIN THE ONES WHO LOCATE THIS PLACE AS WELL, SOI WILL BE JOINING YOU WHILE A SPECIAL AI PROGRAM RUNS THE FACILITY IN MY STEAD."

"We could use someone who knows what may or may not be going on, so welcome aboard," said Ari to Transient.

"I ACCEPT YOUR INVITATION, AND I WILL WAIT WITH THE CONTAINER UNTIL YOU ARE DONE"

Transient soon left through the portal, and Ari turned to the girls, three of whom were staring at the conversation, while a final teal-haired girl looked at a Sentinel as it moved to and fro.

"Everyone ready to go," said Ari.

"Yes, I believe we are, though I can't believe a place like this was buried underneath the city," said the girl Mami as she looked at the room, and out to the facility where Sentinels and Constructors were busy repairing the damage.

"There are many things people do not know, and sometimes we either have to find it, figure it out, or simply ignore it," Ari said, "me, I intend to follow this whole thing to the end, and right now, I need to get the others on the line."

Ari soon activated the comm. and spoke to her remaining two crew members, and after giving them the co-ordinates, as well as the tale of the facility and the monster known as a witch, they agreed to meet up with her after going to get the Prowler (as well as hear all the details of what had happened after the barrier disappeared, leaving them in the alley behind the building, in which they had to get to the top of the building, while not attracting attention by using their cloaking systems).

Afterward, Ari, Mami, Madoka, Homaru and Sayaka all left the facility through the portal, which soon closed up, leaving the facility alone.

But not inactive, as a program soon came up on a screen, followed by a large image of schematics, that if looked at the right way, was similar to, if not the same as the Voi portal system.

* * *

><p>"Ah, my rides here," said Ari.<p>

The groups was on the roof, and were puzzled by her statement when in an instant, a large ship appeared right in front of them, and it was big, to the point where even a moron should be able to see it.

Then they realized that the ship was hidden via a cloaking field and that there was a hole in it that allowed them to see inside while the rest of the field was still online.

Then Ari got on the container and the Sentinels brought it up to the ship, and a bay opened up in the bottom, and they saw a young looking woman in the armor of the other man holding a very big rifle and what looked like a big rocket launcher with two barrels on it.

The container and Ari were soon in the ship, Transient joining them soon after, then Ari looked to them and said, just before the ship took off:

"We will be seeing each other again, because if there are more of those things out there, then expect me to be there when they start making trouble, but for now farewell."

Then the cloaking field fully covered the ship, and soon they heard a powerful whoosh, knowing that it was the sound of the ship leaving.

After a day of revelations, discoveries and more, they chose to go home, though when Homaru and Mami looked at their Soul Gems, they found that the gems were clear as shining glass, not even a hint of darkness within them.

If they had looked closer, they could have noticed the soft motes of pure shining white light that moved about their soul gems.

* * *

><p>The group arrived at the Dusk, where Ari broke to them the death of David, and everyone became very sad about it, especially Amy, who was considering being David's girlfriend.<p>

Then they heard about what Ari had found out, as well as the data to go with it.

The magical girls and magic existing in the dimension had been a shock, but it was another dimension, so such a thing as magic existing was a possibility (even if the Logic Core started to smoke a bit), but learning that the magical girls had to fight inhuman monsters called witches was a big shock, as well as the fact that they now had one in a Forerunner container in the cargo bay.

However the biggest shock, was that 'They' were here.

The Forerunners were in the dimension, and not only could more of their creations be around, but the Forerunners themselves could also be around, alive.

The revelations went on for a while, and they agreed that it would be best to see things through to the end.

Tomorrow they would head out again, and find out more of the mysterious witches, and the battle taking place.

As they went to rest, Pace got busy decrypting the Index, but found it would take a few days to fully decrypt, and continued on, not knowing of what would happen when she fully decrypts it.


End file.
